Monday, February 26, 2007

Sorry it has taken me two freakin' months to reflect on 2006. And many thanks for enduring my Asheville tome. It was a great trip. I highly recommend that you escape with friends whenever you can cause life is WAY too short. Also, a HUGE shout out to all of the visitors from Mason-Dixon knitting. Thanks for stopping by.

I spent my first glorious "penis-free" weekend with my spinning girls back in January. All I can say is that women. are. amazing. Don't let anyone tell you anything different. We are invincible, we are powerful, we are loving, we are vulnerable, we are creative and if you're not careful, we'll someday rule the world. I have to tell you that I came home on an estrogen and spinning high. I'm still in awe of how we found each other over two years ago. Either way, it doesn't matter HOW we found each other, just that we did. Thanks ladies for making my life so very rich!

While I was on this retreat, I finally finished spinning and plying my Dharma (don't you love the name? Of course the joke was where's Greg all weekend.) merino silk while on holiday from the "Things". I also plied a little ball of Finnsheep singles that had been languishing in the bottom of my spinning bag.

Dharma and "Greg" the mini skein of Finnsheep

I got some weird looks over how I ply my yarn. I spin until I nearly fill a bobbin. Then I wind off the singles onto a nostepine to make a flat center pull ball. I take the end from the center and the end from the outside and ply them together until all of the yarn is gone. I don't honestly know why I do it this way. I'm sure I saw it out on the internets somewhere a couple of years ago. There's an article that just went up in the Jan./Feb. newsletter at Fiber Femmes describing this technique complete with pictures. Do any of you spinners out there ply like this?

Okay now back to the final reflections installment.

The Future - 2007

I had an epiphany over the holidays. My dream of owning a retail knitting/spinning shop will need to be deferred at least for the next 10 years. I realized that I'd have to be "married" to a store and things like vacations, QT with The Things, visiting family and friends and carefree knitting and spinning would be practically non-existent. I'm not ready to have another "child" at this point in my life when my boys are still in their formative years. I'm a little sad but am glad to set that one free for now. Though, I won't make resolutions, some of my hard and fast fiber goals for the year are:

* Have fun with Fair Isle and stranded knitting - emphasis on FUN. I want to learn to steek, play with KaffeFassett motifs and become uber proficient at stranded projects. I've already got a couple off the needles. I'll show you more in another post.

* Dyeing to spin - Color is such an important part of my life. I'm constantly inspired by nature - the sky, the weather, animals - and would like to tap into those inspirations to paint more fiber and yarn. I truly want to move beyond the novice colorist stage this year.

* Spinning to knit - Most of the spinning I do is for pure pleasure and to learn about the process. I want to be a bit more purposeful in spinning fibers for specific projects. I have some silk, cashmere, Finnsheep and other lovelies that truly should be spun with a purpose.

* Get creative with my spinning - I'd love to spin some novelty yarns that include beads. I'd also like to spin textured yarns and combine unlikely fiber partners.

* Publish a few patterns - this prospect is scary but I'd like to publish a few patterns this year to see where it takes me. I need to accumulate a good list of intrepid and adventurous test knitters so this dream can be a reality.

* Master finishing work - I'm the first to admit that my finishing work leaves a lot to be desired. I hope to either take a couple of classes to over come my finishing fears or practice, practice, practice until I get it right. It also means forcing myself to select projects that require a lot of finishing. This is the goal I want to do the least and yet need to work on the most.

Two months into 2007 and I've worked on every single one of these goals - hot bad, eh? But I know the proof is in the pudding so I'll flash y'all with some pictures and more details very soon.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Call it a fiber high or lack of judgement but we got greedy. We suddenly decided that we needed to hit ALL of the knitting shops in Asheville and the surrounding area. We spied one shop that wasn't in our list in some arts and craft directory and decided that we'd skoot over to visit since we had some extra time. This was the true dud of the trip - The Enchanted Forest (didn't even bother looking for a link because they don't deserve the patronage).

In our defense, there was a picture of luxury yarn in the ad. It encouraged us to come in and even promised 40% off all yarn. How could we resist? The first sign of trouble was that the navigation system took us to the wrong end of the road we needed to be on. Approximately 15 minutes out of our way. When we finally found the place, the sign read "Consignment Shop". Our spider senses told us to turn back but we'd already come so far. There on near-empty shelves, nestled between an old waffle maker and a wasp's nest, lay a few dozen orphan skeins. I wanted to save them from their fate. There were skeins of Fiesta, Needful, Lily Chin and Art Yarns that shouldn't have been subject to that suffering. But before I could rescue them, CM quickly ushered me out of the store. I don't think we spent more that 120 seconds in that shop. Talk about false advertising. Shame on you Enchanted Forest for not stating in your ad that it was a yarn clearance instead of a sale. We gave it a negative 5 our of 5 stars. It sucked big time.

By now it was 4pm and tick, tick, tick we had one shop left to visit - Yarn Paradise. Should we dare put all of our hopes and dreams in one basket? We'd purposely NOT gazed into the windows of the store so that we'd be surprised when we arrived. Our fingers and toes were crossed that we'd saved the best for last.

We almost trampled each other trying to get into the store. Not only was it growing colder as the sun began fade but we knew that we didn't have much time to shop. Once inside the doors, we knew that we'd reached yarn mecca. The store not only has a great selection of yarn, books, colors and customer service all under one roof. We marvelled at the fact that not only did they have great floor stock but they had plenty of backstock too. No problem finding enough yarn in a color you want for a large project here. Koigu and Claudia's Handpaint overflowed from several Lantern Book tiered baskets near the front of the store. Colinette and Noro dripped from the walls in the "fireplace room". We all immediately got ADD and wandered for a bit which I think made the staff suspicious because they followed us around for a while. This put me off at first but then again they might have a lot of theft so I tried to keep that in mind. After a while, they backed off unless we asked for help. My main goal besides buying fiber was to stock up on some yarns so that I could tackle some sort of fair isle or stranded project. I scored big time with some Koigu , Koigu mill ends (who knew there was such a thing) and some Debbie Bliss Silk. The others had bigger projects to buy for so we set to work on filling those needs.

The staff and even their customers were too kind and very helpful. Thanks to their very nice store samples and swatches, we bought even more yarn than we'd planned. They have great selection of Louisa Harding, Ella Rae, Katia and Nashua yarns. And staples like Debbie Bliss, Noro, Cascade and Classic Elite. If we'd decided to stay until Monday, we could have gotten our Friday Night Knitting Club books signed by the author. Darn it. Talk about bad timing. Yarn Paradise scored a great big shiny 5 outta 5 stars! Worth every dime!

By now its almost 6 pm, its really cold and windy, our dogs were barking and hunger had set in. We decided to make reservations at another highly recommended restaurant - Zambra Tapas so that we'd have a snowball's chance of eating dinner at a decent hour. We couldn't get in until almost 8 pm so we decided to survey our haul and play with fiber for a while. SF is the fashion designer so she "laid out" all of our stuff on her bed for the photo shoot.

The whole kit and kaboodle

TE and S's Haul

IM and CM's Haul

Not bad, eh?

Zambra is everything that everyone said that it would be. The selection of tapas dishes was incredible. There was a three piece flamenco (?) band playing that was as flawless as a digital recording. We even ran into some friends from Roanoke. What a great way to cap the day and the weekend.

Of course we stayed up gabbing again and playing with all of our new fiber, yarn, pattern books and gadgets. We out lived the fire and reluctantly went to bed sometime around 2:30 am. Just one more row was heard more than once during the evening. After another one of Bruce's delicious breakfasts, we packed, knit until noon and then zipped by the Grove Park Inn just to see what all the buzz was about. This place is a behemoth. Just look at how small the cars are next to the building.

Grove Park Inn

And the view from the back of the property...

Breathtaking, no?

We finally couldn't put off the inevitable and headed back home to "reenter" the real world of kids, husbands, pets and housework. I spent the car trip deconstructing on of S's sweaters for TE in hopes that we can work up a pattern for it in the coming weeks. I've never done such a thing so we'll see how it turns out.

Don't you love the different buttons?

Now that I've done my little part for Asheville tourism, who wants to meet me there for SAFF in October? I'd love to see if we could rent the entire B&B and spin and knit all weekend. Come on, you know you wanna :)

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Friday night we were reminded by the evening staff to get up in time to make Bruce's famous breakfast. Of course, we were all dragging butt. I'd stayed up reading the first couple of chapters of Friday Night Knitting Club and visions of fiber were dancing in all of our heads. There was lots of yummy, carb-filled goodness but for some reason all I can remember is the baked peach french toast and "smack yo-momma" blueberry muffins (they weren't named that but that's how good they were).

With a map of Asheville in hand, a list of our stops and comfy shoes on our feet, we braved the cold in search of fiber. First stop of the day, the Grove Arcade and Asheville NC Homecrafts (The Arcade in and of itself is a work of art. It was built by the same person who built the Grove Park Inn. This place has all sorts of great shops, food and fun. Add this to your must see list.).

The Grove Arcade

Asheville Homecrafts is a refreshingly unique store. Half is committed to finished handcrafted items - mostly fiber related - such as handspun/hand knit hats and scarves, dolls, baskets, quilts and clothing. The other half is chock full of yarn, a significant percentage of which is locally produced. An entire wall dangled with locally spun yarns of all fibers. Its such a rare treat to find a store so committed to prominently promoting regional talent. S was so smitten with the handspun that we revisited the store on Sunday. There were also some staples such as Brown Sheep, Debbie Bliss and Noro and hard to find yarns such as Tilli Tomas. There was only one person on duty so the personalized service was spotty but good when available. This shop ranks a strong 4 out of 5!

TE, CM and SF at Asheville Homecrafts

There are three, yes THREE, fiber related shops in downtown Asheville. We barely have three within a 50 mile radius in the Roanoke Valley so imagine our giddiness when we realized that we could walk to most of the shops on our list. I believe we might have skipped to our next stop (mostly because it was so damn cold) - Earthguild.

Earthguild is located on Haywood Street in the Woolworth Walk across the street from Chocolate Fetish. In just the past few months, I've had severe allergic reactions to chocolate that's been processed on the same equipment with tree nuts so I was warned by the staff not to indulge. But others in our group said something about the chocolate being orgasmic. Sucks having allergies. Back to Earthguild. The store is huge. It truly covers a wide swath hobby and craft supplies from leather tooling to weaving to spinning to dyeing and everything in between. I ended up buying a pound and a half of medium grade "wool" (they had no idea what breed it was) with the intention of spinning some yarn as a gift for S. However, she wasn't "feelin" the fiber and honestly had a hard time envisioning what it might look like spun up so I gave up on trying to sell her on it and decided to use it to experiment with dyes when I got home. As far as yarns, they too had a large selection of Brown Sheep (too much Brown Sheep in one town if you ask me), Christopher Sheep Farm yarns and the Louet Gems line (I bought some white to dye with especially since I LURV Koigu) but nothing really stood out. There weren't many spinning or needle felting supplies in stock so I wasn't able to shop for most of the things on my list - boo hoo :( Now I have to issue a small disclaimer: I set my sights very high for this shop because I came to load up on fiber not yarn. Plus, I've had over two years to stock up on basic spinning stuff. I need much more specialized fibers and gadgets. I believe that the store doesn't have enough depth in a particular craft to truly meet the broader needs of the crafter but has more than enough to allow people to dabble very nicely. The customer service was at both ends of the spectrum and depended heavily on the staff tending to you. This shop gets a 3 out of 5.

Wanna see the funniest part of our Earthguild trip? An old (like 1990s) Vogue knitting book. We were so distracted by the models that we couldn't focus on the patterns.

Stop laughing. I'm related to Eddie Munster and can't help it if I have thick eyebrows

It's like she wants us to see that she shaved her pits

Huh? What? Can't hear you because of these giant starfish on my ears.

What were we thinking in the 80's? Okay enough kidding around. Feeling a bit let down, we headed to Chocolate Fetish first (good to drown your sorrows in chocolate) and then to Purls Yarn Emporium (Someone in Asheville please get these people a decent website. It does NOT do the store justice). When we walked through the door, a light shown down. For me, I was in heaven. The yarns are arranged by color that makes for a striking presentation.

Look at all of that red, orange and yellow!

Now I know some of you hate your yarn arranged this way but we were working on color palette projects so this set up was perfect. For whatever reason, we could focus better and a S & C actually camped out on the floor by the "greens" at one point to put together an array of yarns for a throw. There was an entire table full of cashmere, silk and blends of both (I just wanted to roll on it) from Art Yarns and Fiesta. Another entire table with some uber cool handspun yarns by local artist Urban GypZ.

CM and TE in full color palette project mode @ Purls

Great buttons, a case full of antique knitting supplies and good selection of books. Their choice of staff for the store that day left a lot to be desired. The guy on duty seemed to be bored out of his mind and somewhat annoyed that we were there. Interesting considering how much money was spent by our group alone not to mention the other customers. Go figure. This store was the first to get 5 stars even with the lukewarm reception. I didn't buy a thing mostly because I had a hard time breathing once some of the yarn winding started. For some odd reason, I've recently become allergic to baby alpaca. Its so bad that I can't breathe and after about 20 minutes at Purls, I had to leave the store to get some fresh air. Bummer.

Ladden with heavy bags, we headed started back to the car but got sidetracked by growling stomachs and decided to stop and eat lunch. S quickly spied Early Girl Eatery and we popped in, not knowing that this was one of the best places in Asheville to eat lunch.

Most everything on their menu is organic or healthy or vegan which was what we needed after the Southern style breakfast we'd consumed. We got back to the car just in time to find a ticket on the window. We'd forgotten to feed the meter! Fear not, good karma intervened and it was only a warning. No tickie today! However that's where the luck ended. We were about to find the dud of the day.

This post is already getting too long so against my better judgement, I'm gonna post the rest tomorrow.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Yes, I know its not Monday (several of you have already called me on the carpet for not blogging about my trip on Monday). This crazy little thing called work keeps getting in the way. Perhaps I'll hit the VA lottery tonight - its over $130 MILLION! In the meantime, I have to pay the bills and blogging's not doing the trick just yet.

So four knitters decided back in Nov. that we needed a retreat, a penis free knitting retreat to be exact. We scoped out the possibilities and Asheville won out. It was only a little over 4 hours away, had multitudes of quaint B&B's, excellent food and most important - a high concentration of yarn shops. I must confess that this is the second penis free fiber retreat I've been on since the beginning of the year. I'll back track and tell you about the first one another day (Just wanted the F5 to know that I didn't forget).

Our three day trip began last Friday (hurray for the three day weekend). We stopped first at Circle of Friends Yarn Shop, a cute shop nestled in the very small downtown of Elkins. The shop had a great array of yarns including Debbie Bliss, Brown Sheep, Malabrigo, Noro, and Araucania. The staff was very attentive and friendly. While nothing appealed to me in particular (I was more in the mood for fiber than yarn), the others found quite a bit that they liked. We gave this shop 3.5 stars out of 5! A great find.

Next stop, Much Ado About Knitting in Lewisburg. While there was more selection than we have at our LYS (which isn't saying much), twasn't much to get excited about. A butt load of various and sundry novelty yarns. I did get to smell the Skacel aromatherapy yarns Meditation and Bravura. And it was nice to fondle Dale Yarns and flip through Phildar patterns. Was it worth the detour? Nope. A very disappointing 1.5 out of 5 stars.

How can you not love a place that greets you with the photo at the very top of this post? This is the cover of the Feb. 07 issue of the Laurel of Asheville Visitors Magazine. Take a closer look at the white specks in the left corner. Yep, those are sheep (sorry I couldn't enlarge the photo so you could see a close up shot of the sheepies). I LOVE this photo! It's by photographer Susan Stanton and is available as a greeting card in addition to prints. Visit her website - http://stantonphoto.com/ for more information.

Anyhoo, back to Cedar Crest. Built in 1891, this Victorian mansion is run by Rita and Bruce Wightman - the most incredible hosts I've encountered in many years. There was always something yummy in the parlour and the main house is as beautiful as a museum. We reserved the entire guest cottage for our stay so our late night gabbing wouldn't disturb anyone.

Cedar Crest Guest Cottage

We arrived both hungry and eager to play with fiber so we quickly unpacked, sat and knit for a while and made dinner reservations at the Corner Kitchen.Corner Kitchen

Don't let the name fool you. Corner Kitchen is far from "home cookin". They call it "comfortable Caromerican cuisine" and it did NOT disappoint. Located in the historic Biltmore Village, the added bonus of dining at Corner Kitchen is that its a stones throw from what would be our final destination of the weekend, Yarn Paradise (more about that in a minute).

Peeps, it was C.O.L.D. Friday night. We headed directly back to our cottage to find that the fire had been "set" for us - all we had to do was light it. This is a shot of the sitting room between

Cedar Crest Guest Cottage sitting room

our rooms. By the time we had our jammies on, it was roaring hot. S, being the sweetheart that she is, gifted us with a copy of Friday Night Knitting Club

to celebrate our retreat. I can't believe that I missed hearing about this book. I'm only a couple of chapters in but its still got my attention.

Late night knitting and spinning next to the fireSometime well after 1 am and after the fire had dimmed to a glowing whisper, we turned in. There was much yarn and fiber to be had on Saturday and we planned to hit the shops promptly at 10 am, when they opened.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Some of you who visit my blog vs. a feed, may have seen this triangular fun pop up in my flickr photo set in the left column earlier this year. Inspired by all of the Mason-DixonLog Cabin squares I saw last spring, I decided to try my hand at developing a log cabin triangle. I finished the larger triangle/shawl in early summer o6, just in time not get to use it very much. With the colder weather of late January and early February, it has gotten lots of use by family and friends alike. For whatever reason, I've had pattern publishing anxiety - one of the things I hope to get past this year - and didn't have the confidence to publish it until now. If you choose to knit one (or several) triangles, please let me know of any edits that you might suggest and I'll share them on my blog. Or better yet, join the Trinity Flickr Group and discuss the pattern and post pictures of your creations there.

So consider Trinity an early Valentine's Day present. I hope that you enjoy the pattern and I look forward to seeing triangular spawn on the internets.

Trinity - the log cabin triangle worn as a shawl

Trinity

Trinity is the close relative of the basic Log Cabin square. It is constructed of a base triangle and trapezoid shaped strips. Make multitudes of triangles and stitch together in ways only limited by your imagination. A giant single triangle is suitable for a small throw, shoulder wrap or baby blanket. Felt smaller ones and make potholders. Get wild and knit several smaller triangles - and perhaps (((gasp))) even log cabin squares - together. Geometry and knitting are a match made in heaven!

Materials: * Odd balls of yarn (for the sample, I used worsted weight natural fiber yarns)* Appropriate size needles depending on what is recommended for the weight of the yarn(s) you plan to use (for both of the samples, I used Size US 10.5 Denise Needles)* Tapestry needle* Tape measure* Crochet hook (optional)

Gauge: will vary based on yarn and needles used

Notes:

* When using acrylic and fiber blend yarns, keep in mind that they will block differently than natural fibers. It is also worth noting that some natural fibers block differently than others. Be sure to test fibers to see if they bleed especially if you plan to use many different colors in one project.

* You can use any weight of yarn for the body of the throw. However, I recommend using a sturdy yarn for the base triangle.

* Using needles a size or two larger than the recommended needle for the weight of the yarn, will give your project a slightly airy look. If you choose to mix weights of yarn, experiment with doubling the yarn and/or knitting fewer or more rows to achieve the desired width in strip for each section.

* You can preserve your sanity by weaving the loose ends of the yarn in on each row as you’re knitting vs. weaving in five thousand ends when you’re finished.

* You can leave the sts “live” after finishing each row (in lieu of binding off) by using a circular needle the circumference of the triangle or by slipping the live sts onto a piece of yarn. I used my Denise needles and changed the cords as the circumference expanded. If you plan to make a giant triangle, it would be worth it to invest in a 60” cord (for the Denises or 60” circular needle). However, binding off does tend to provide some structure for each side of the triangle, especially if you are using lighter weight yarns. If possible swatch using each technique before you invest too much time in a larger project.

(follow directions below for both sizes of base triangles. The directions for the larger triangle are in parentheses.)

Side One of Triangle

Row 1 – (With new yarn) At base of triangle, pick up 13 (17) sts.Row 2 – Kf&b 1st st, k to last st, kf&bRow 3 – KRepeat rows 2 and 3, inc. 1st and last stitch on every other row until strip is desired width. (For the sample, there were 3 garter st ridges after binding off.) Bind off. If you choose to keep the sts live, make sure that working needle is on the left side of your knitting. You will be rotating the triangle to the left to pick up sts on the 2nd side of the triangle.

Side Two of Triangle

Row 1 - (with new yarn) Begin picking up sts for side two beginning with sides of the strip you just knit. Pick up sts between the garter sts ridges totaling the same as what you picked up on side one (the base of the triangle).Row 2 – Kf&b 1st st, k to last st, kf&bRow 3 – KRepeat rows 2 and 3, inc. 1st and last stitch on every other row until strip is desired width. Bind off. If you choose to keep the sts live, make sure that working needle is on the left side of your knitting. You will be rotating the triangle to the left to pick up sts on the 3rd side of the triangle.

Side Three of Triangle

Row 1 – (with new yarn) Begin picking up sts for side three beginning with sides of the second strip you just knit, the third side of the triangle, and the sides of the first strip you knit. This side will be slightly longer than the other two sides.Row 2 – Kf&b 1st st, k to last st, kf&bRow 3 – K

Repeat rows 2 and 3, inc. 1st and last stitch on every other row until strip is desired width.. Bind off. If you choose to keep the sts live, make sure that working needle is on the left side of your knitting. You will be rotating the triangle to the left to pick up sts on the 1st side of the triangle.

Continue with directions for side three of triangle for all sides until triangle is the desired size (if you are using circulars, you will be picking up the sts from the sides of the strips on either side and will be knitting the sts from the needle on the sts in the center). Use a crochet hook, three needle bind off or tapestry needle to connect/sew the triangles together.

If knitting one large triangle, use a decorative yarn and crochet or knit a chain of stitches around the entire project to finish the edges. Experiment with a picot trim, tassels or other decorative edging for even more fun. Enjoy!

All contents are copyright Tanya Brooks 2007. This pattern is for personal use only and may not be used commercially, distributed or copied whole or in part without express written permission from Tanya Brooks.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

After much gnashing of teeth, many cuss words and a crash course in editing source code, I have made the new Blogger and its crappy template my beoatch - Who's.YO.Daddy?!? Say it, Say it. For those of you who read my blog through Bloglines or another feeder, please pop on over to the blog and give me your honest opinion. And feel free to bust my cojones and let me know if some stuff isn't working right, point out dead links, laugh at my lack of XTML savvy or let me know if the new design is toovanilla. And if anyone would like to design me a snazzy new template in return for some handspun yarn, I'd be happy to work out a trade. To be honest, I had gotten some comments that the old blog (RIP) was too dark and hard to read so I hope that this is a welcome change. Fear not, dear readers. I'm not a plain vanilla kinda girl so you will see me spice up la casitade Muse very soon. I'm still getting comfy with XTML and hope to add tweaks here and there as time permits. In the meantime, enjoy the divine Ms. Z (Zira the monkey that is) as she frolicks in the snow.For those who suggested that I switch to Haloscan to make commenting easier, I'm going to hold off for a bit and see if this Blogger upgrade helps. After reading the forums for Haloscan and Blogger, it looks like there's a tendency for people to lose all of their comments when they switch to Haloscan commenting. I'm a serious comment Ho so I'd be really sad if I lost all of your comments from the last several years. If you're still encounter commenting problems, please email me (indigomuseatverizondotnet) and let me know what kind of commenting problems you're having so that I can put the screws to Blogger to get it fixed. I love hearing from all of you and it truly pisses me off that some of you have given up on commenting because its so difficult to do so.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for continuing to read about my fiber exploits. I love being a part of this wonderful fiberlicious worldwide family. I promise to have a regular blog post tomorrow!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

I haven't posted in some time because I'm trying to figure out what to do about upgrading my template for the new blogger. I'm not sure that it will work or what I'll lose in the process. So if things look wonky or outta whack, its me scrambling to fix la casita de Muse. If all goes well, I'll have a couple of new posts today.

PLEASE bear with me before you decide that you've had it with trying to comment or view my blog and unsubscribe. I would rather not change my blog address because its such a huge hassle for readers to keep up with the changes. Thanks and please know that I appreciate each and every one of you for sticking with me :)